The Chesterfield football history resource

You're quite right - it is daft, on the face of it, to claim anyone who played only nine times for the club as a Chesterfield FC "legend." Yet Mark Kendall's hero status among
Chesterfield fans is great in comparison to the number of games he played. A
Welsh under-21 international goalkeeper, he
joined on loan from Tottenham to cover for the injured Phil Tingay in November
1979 and looked a class act from the start.

He
was recalled by Spurs after just nine games. In that time the club lost only
once and Kendall performed with an easily appreciated ability. His last
Chesterfield game was the famous "Geoff Salmons" match at Sheffield
Wednesday where the midfielder scored an equaliser late into injury time, but
it would be as fair to call it the "Mark Kendall" game, since he
saved a Mark Smith penalty after Terry Curran had taken a dive, ruining Smith's
100% record from the spot and preserving a valuable point for Chesterfield, by
the time the final whistle came.

Mark's
response at having to return to White Hart Lane greatly increased his prestige
with supporters. Speaking of the Spireites' defeat at Blundell Park in the
first game after his recall, he said "Chesterfield's defeat at Grimsby
hurt more than Spurs' defeat at Derby on the same day. Arthur Cox," he
continued, "has done so much for me that it is no wonder that I feel this
way, particularly as Barry Daines will replace me as soon as he is fit."

A
deal was made with Spurs for a permanent transfer upon Daines's return to
fitness, but Cox was impatient and, a fortnight later, Chesterfield splashed
out a big fee on John Turner, so any chance of a return for Mark was scotched.
He did come back to Chesterfield, though, on a number of occasions - in the
visiting team's goal, when his appearance usually brought a reception that
touched Kendall's heart and left visiting supporters quite baffled. He was a
regular guest of the Supporters' Club, who invited him to present their `player
of the year' awards for several seasons. A modest, likeable man, he always
seemed genuinely touched by the warmth of his reception at such events.

Mark
left White Hart Lane for Newport County in September 1980, playing 272 times
for the Somerton Park side. He joined the revival at Wolverhampton Wanderers in
1986 and played 147 games for Wolves before winding down a good professional
career with Swansea City and Burnley. Mark won Fourth and Third Division
championship medals with Wolves and appeared in the 1988 Sherpa Van final at
Wembley. He later played non-league football with AFC Newport, Ebbw Vale and
Cwmbran.

In
1992 Mark joined the Gwent Police and rose to the rank of Detective Constable
before becoming well-respected in the field of police training, being named the
national "Trainer of the Year" in 2007. In the course of his police
career he received two bravery awards after coming to the aid of someone being
assaulted by four others and disarming a chainsaw-wielding madman.

His
son Lee was a Crystal Palace trainee and later played in the Welsh league; when
Cwmbran played Barry Town in the 2000-1 season father and son opposed eachother
in the nets. All those who knew or watched him here were shocked by the news of
Mark's sudden death in May 2008, at the age of forty-nine.